NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: 34TH STREET

NEIGHBORHOOD REPORT: 34TH STREET; Once a Hotel, Again a Hotel

By BRUCE LAMBERT

Published: September 18, 1994

The New Yorker Hotel, since 1976 the mission headquarters of the Unification Church, has embarked on a new life with an old twist: it's a hotel again.

Since renovations began this year, the lobby's crystal chandeliers have been polished to an elegant glitter, and old yellow paint has been scraped off to reveal green marble beneath. Rooms are being booked as they are finished. Permanent rates have not been set but are expected to be in the moderate and economy range.

Completion of work on the 250 rooms, in the top eight floors of the 40-story Art Deco tower, is scheduled by year-end. Depending on business, the renovations could be extended to half the building, said Andrew Bacus, a lawyer for the church. The ground floor space previously occupied by a bank is being redeveloped, and the Sonobana restaurant may be replaced.

Part of the building is being retained for offices for the church and other groups and housing for missionaries and visiting members, Mr. Bacus said, but the new commercial uses will reduce the building's current 83 percent exemption from property taxes.

The hotel opened in 1930 with 2,500 rooms and in its heyday had 92 switchboard operators and a 42-chair barber shop. It closed in 1972, and four years later, was bought by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church.

The hotel's revival stems partly from the church's demographic changes. Many of the single missionaries who used The New Yorker as a dormitory have since paired off -- some were among the 2,075 couples married en masse at Madison Square Garden a decade ago -- and have moved to apartments and suburban homes.

But it is also in part reflects the improved conditions around 34th Street. The hotel hopes to draw business and tourist travelers from the Javits Convention Center, Madison Square Garden and Penn Station.

"It used to be you couldn't walk around this area without getting propositioned half a dozen times for prostitution or drugs, but now 34th Street is great again," said Steven Honig, the hotel's general manager. B.L.